FF Zine Sans Display

Berlin-based designer Ole Schäfer specializes in large families of business-like text faces. FF Zine is a fine example of his logic. Art Directors often have trouble finding matching matching typefaces across several different styles.

FF Zine’s design grew out of an earlier project of Schäfer’s. In 1996, he drew a two-weight headline face for Dresden’s Sächsische Zeitung newspaper. A dedicated display system offering multiple “atmospheres” was called for. His solution was a type system with three different sub-families – Sans, Serif and Slab – which were developed simultaneously, although the Serif variant served as the “master” style from which the other two evolved.

All three sub-families offer five weights of type, and each weight includes a true italic companion. The fonts all contain two types of numerals. As the name indicates, FF Zine is optimized for use in editorial design, primarily for magazine headlines and subheads.

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